A uBro solution is provided in the prior art to meet a requirement for indoor coverage of network signals. In this solution, outdoor coverage is performed by using a macro network, and indoor coverage is performed by a femto (Femto) network, thereby achieving the indoor coverage of the network signals.
In the uBro solution, if a user equipment (UE, User Equipment) used by a user is located indoors, the user equipment may be covered by both the Femto network and the macro network. Because tariffs of using these two networks by the user are different, considering the user's right to know, an operator needs to notify the user of a type of a currently used network thereof.
In the prior art, a location information notification method is mainly implemented by using a mobility management (MM, Mobility Management) information technology or an information technology of general packet radio service (GPRS, General Packet Radio Service) mobility management (GMM, GPRS Mobility Management). A specific process is roughly as follows:
When the UE enters a coverage area of the Femto network from a coverage area of the macro network or enters a coverage area of the macro network from a coverage area of the Femto network, a location area changes, and the UE initiates a location update process to a core network. In the location update process, the core network delivers MM information or GMM information to the UE. After receiving the MM information or the GMM information, the UE reads an identifier of a network on which the UE is currently located therefrom and displays the identifier of the network on a screen of the UE, so that the user is capable of learning the type of the currently used network.
To use the MM information or the GMM information, the UE needs to have an MM information interface or a GMM information interface. Currently, there are various UEs, and application-layer software that they use greatly differs. In a practical application, there is a relatively serious problem in compatibility of the MM information or the GMM information between different UEs.
Inventors of the present invention have performed a compatibility test on mobile phones of each mainstream mobile phone vendor on a current market. The test relates to 29 mobile phones of eight vendors. It can be seen from the test that 31.04% of the mobile phones do not support the MM information or the GMM information at all. In repeated test processes, 6.9% of the mobile phones display the information with probabilities, and 24.13% of the mobile phones have other problems, such as a display delay.
Therefore, in the prior art, the solution in which location information notification is implemented by using the MM information or the GMM information has a poor reliability and cannot accurately and effectively notify the user of location information.